


it's not that deep.

by fentonworks



Series: phanniemay 2019 [1]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Danny panics a lot, Identity Reveal, Paulina Sanchez deserved better in the show so she's mine now, Phanniemay, Phanniemay 2019, also danny is not neurotypical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 12:46:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18691789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fentonworks/pseuds/fentonworks
Summary: phanniemay day 2: secrets.—Someone at school had started rumour that Amity Park's renowned ghost hero, Danny Phantom, attended Casper High. As a student.





	it's not that deep.

Someone at school had started rumour that Amity Park's renowned ghost hero, Danny Phantom, attended Casper High. As a student.

 

Danny, poor soul, didn't even find this out until third period, when Sam broke the news to him through a paper football flicked into his head.  Unconventional, but hey. It worked.

 

 

By lunch, however, Danny was downright _paranoid_.

 

 

 

 

 

  
  
“I don't– I'm– _How?_ "  He pulled at his hair in frustration.  He’d been overthinking and overthinking the news since he got it, and no matter how he ran through it, none of the end results were good.  Thus, Danny panicked.

 

"Who would even think that? I'm– He's– Phantom's a _ghost!_ Who would think a ghost would attend a _high school? Among living people?_ ”  (His friends politely ignored that he was, in fact, a ghost attending a high school, among living people.  He was having a crisis; it was only fair.)

 

 

But by all means (to Danny, at least), it didn't make sense.  He worked _extremely_ hard to keep his identity as Fenton and Phantom as separate as possible so things like this wouldn't happen.  If he could, Danny would be pacing holes in the ground by now. Instead, he'd resorted to fidgeting with his hands to try and keep his composure steady, at the very least.  It wasn’t really helping, but the stim was nice.

 

 

 

“Danny, look at it this way,”  Sam laid a hand on his shoulder and he drooped.  Tucker nodded sagely to Sam, but didn’t look up from his PDA.  "It's _just_ a rumour. Whoever started it probably wanted the attention or some shit. I doubt it's anything to be worried about."

 

" _Unless_ it is, because usually rumours and lies are founded in truth, so the worst outcome is someone kno— _Ow_ , Sam, what gives?" Tucker leaned away from the goth, rubbing his arm.  She'd elbowed him _hard_ , damn!

 

Her eyes narrowed into slits, and Tucker could almost feel the waves of irritation rolling off her.  He didn’t look at her.

“ _Not helping_ , Tuck.”

 

  
  
“Sorry dude.”  Danny quirked a lip in a partial smile. They were chill.

 

“But really, I agree with Sam. If it took your sister actually _seeing_ it happen for her to find out, I doubt anyone in school’s done it. White people are _terrible_ at this stuff.”  Tucker shrugged off a more playful glare from Sam this time, and shrugged.  White people sucked figuring things out in horror movies, real life was no different.  He’s just speaking it as it is.

 

 

Heaving a sigh, Danny leaned out of Sam’s touch and backwards.  They made a good point, at least. Maybe he didn’t need to panic as much as he was.  His friends had his back.

 

But Tucker’s comment got gears turning.  Maybe he didn’t have to worry about the rumour _itself_ for now, but he definitely had to find out _where_ the rumour came from.  It seemed to be contained within the walls of Casper High for now, but who knows what could happen.  Teenagers _talk_ .  And this _really_ wasn’t a rumour he wanted getting out of hand; it could end up disastrous.

 

 

  
  
When he leaned forwards again, Danny’d managed a somewhat confident look on his face.  Tucker raised a brow while Sam tilted her head.

 

“We gotta find out who _started_ this thing.”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

  
  
When Danny had gotten home, his first course of action was to tell Jazz the situation.  Obviously.  She had not reacted that great (she was _very_ worried for her brother), but anxiety was a Fenton trait.  He ignored it.

 

When she’d calmed down, though, Jazz helped him think.  If he kept panicking, there was the chance (however slim) of him doing something to set off more rumours.  He just had to act like everything was “normal”. He was good at that; he’d been doing it for months already.

 

 

She also agreed to help track down the source of the gossip mill.  He figured it might be someone popular if it spread so fast, but there were A-listers in every year, and fuck if Danny (small, nervous, easily bullied) was gonna try to get information out of _any_ upperclassmen but Jazz.  He’d like to _enjoy_ the rest of his life, thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

  
  
Nearly a week had gone by with barely any leads, and Danny’s panic is slowly climbing with every day.

 

Come Thursday, he found a note in his locker when he left a class to grab his forgotten homework.  He opened it on the walk back, and promptly wished he hadn’t done that. In curly handwriting read “Ghost boy, meet me in the courtyard during lunch.”, and it nearly sent him into a panic attack.  He could make it twenty more minutes, he could manage.

 

 

He barely managed.

 

Lunch couldn’t come fast enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
  
The moment the bell rang, he nearly raced out of the classroom.  He waited until he was crowded by students to phase himself and his back through the floor, going invisible and intangible until he spotted Sam and Tucker on their way to their lockers. He jumped into the crowd behind them and whisper-yelled to get their attention.  Tucker jumped, and he almost felt bad for scaring him until his panic resurfaced. They could see it on his face, and ducked out of the crowd of students with him to talk.

 

“What’s up dude? You’re more frazzled than I’ve seen you all week,” The tech nerd frowned.

 

 

 

Danny didn’t even answer, too busy frantically digging through his backpack for the note.  After a hot second he snapped up, instead reaching a hand into his back pocket and pulling something out.  He held it up to them, speaking too rapidly for them to make out.

“GotthislastclassholyshitholyfuckingshitI’m _so_ fuckedohgod—”

 

“Slow down, Danny,”  Sam gingerly plucked the paper from his fingers but made no move to open it yet.

 

 

 

  
  
He took in a breath, and nodded, starting over.

 

“I got this during my last class when I grabbed something from my locker. It’s addressed _to Phantom_ and it was in _my_ locker! I’m fucked!”  He threw up his hands at his last sentence, voiced shifting up a pitch in his panic.

 

 

“Oh,”  Tucker blanched.  “That’s... not good.”

 

Sam squinted at the curly handwriting, then looked back at Danny.  It doesn’t say you _have_ to go alone. Me and Tucker’ll come with you.”

 

  
  
“...backup?”

 

“Backup.”  The other two mirrored, as Sam handed back the note.  They stopped at their lockers before heading to lunch with nervous energy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
  
The trio end up in the table farthest away from the others, and start picking at their food idly.  The note only specified to meet outside, not a place or exact time, so they _probably_ had time to eat.  

 

In the meantime, Danny’s initial paranoia had skyrocketed, head running through every person who he even knew in school.  He _really_ hoped it wasn’t that Wes kid; he gave Danny a suspicious glare every time they came near each other that set off alarms in his brain.  If it was Valerie, he really wasn’t sure what he’d do. It all depended on if she still wanted to kill him or not— or at least, in what way.  He didn’t even want to think about the outcomes of if _Dash_ had figured it out.

 

 

 

  
  
When he finally heard footsteps in the grass, he went rigid.  He watched Sam’s expression go from confused to surprise to anger in seconds flat and Tucker’s jaw drop.  He’s almost afraid to turn around. (He does anyway, right as Sam speaks.)

 

 

“ _Paulina?_ ”  She’s shocked.  “No way. You’re an airhead. If you’re just here to make fun of us, fuck off.”

  
  
  


 

 

Paulina rolled her eyes, placing a hand on her hip.  “Please. Give me some credit for once, goth girl. I don’t have A’s and B’s in my classes for nothing.”

 

 

  
  
“Yeah, _okay_ . I refuse to believe that _you_ , of _all_ people in this school, sent Danny _that_ note and figured it out.”

 

 

“What? Like it was hard?”

 

 

 

 

  
  
Sam Manson gaped, and seconds later with a huff sat back down in her seat.

“Shallow bitch,”  she mumbled under her breath.

 

 

“You can call me shallow all you want, but it's really not that deep. Honestly, I’m surprised you kept it a secret for so long— it was _obvious_ when I really looked.” Paulina shrugged a shoulder.

 

“I mean really,”  She eyed the trio from the corner of her vision.  “Once I made the connection between Phantom showing up wherever _you_ are, you disappearing during ghost attacks, Goth or Nerd always showing up around Phantom... and don’t get me started about your facial structure. You should try makeup if you really wanna keep it a _secret_. But anyway. It just wasn’t that big a jump after that.”

 

 

  
  
Tucker was beginning to see why Paulina said she was doing well in school.

 

 

“I won’t tell anyone.”  She shrugs. “It can be _our_ secret now! I’ve always wanted to work with the ghost boy.”

 

She claps her hands and her face lights up with a smile.  A sly wink earns her a patented Goth glare, but made Danny’s face heat up.  It was worth it, _and_ funny.

 

 

“Not that this means I’m gonna date you— I still don’t like,” Paulina gestures at Danny. “All of that.  But maybe you’re not _actually_ an outcast loser.”

 

It was a very backwards compliment, but Danny took it nonetheless.  At least she didn’t hate him. And won’t actually tell anyone? He was shocked.  But he wasn’t gonna look a gift horse in the mouth— _especially_ not in this situation.

 

 

  
  
“Uhhh,”  He stalled.  “Th..thanks? I think?”

 

“Don’t mention it.”  Paulina waved them off.  “And really, _don’t_ mention it.  I don’t wanna be seen talking to you like this any more than usual. I have status quo to upkeep.”

 

 

 

Danny nodded, unsure what else he could really say to that.

 

 

Sam called out as the Latina started walking off, stopping her momentarily.

“Why did you even turn the gossip mill for this? And this _better_ mean you’re going to kill it.”

 

 

 

She only turned her head enough to catch Danny in her peripheral vision.  “Honestly? I just thought it’d be funny. And fine, whatever. But this is the _only_ favour _you_ get from me.”

 

 

 

 

 

She finally walks off, just as the end of lunch bell rings.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm attempting phanniemay this year! since it's the last. :c an of an Era, man.  
>   
> anyway i wrote this at like 3am so anyway ignore that this is a few hours late to post on day 2 (ill just change the pub date later shhh)
> 
> you can find my art entries for phanniemay on my tumblr @fentonworkz! o7


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